Trout was obviously the overall fantasy MVP this year. He may well have provided more bang for the buck than anyone since Albert Pujols debuted for the Cardinals in 2001. ... I'm sure I was higher on Rios than most going into this year, but that probably wasn't the case with Jones, who took a big step forward in the power department and also established a new career high in steals. Not only did Jones go from 25 homers to 32 this season, but he had 39 doubles, topping his previous high by 13.

I forgive injuries here, but Ellsbury was pretty much a non-factor in the half-season he did play. While Ellsbury's MVP-quality 2011 may go down as a career year, he still performed a whole lot better than this in his two previous healthy seasons. ... I thought Upton would take another step forward at age 24. Instead, he needed a late surge just to finish with 17 homers. He had 11 through the end of August. I'm still a big believer going forward. ... As for Delmon, well, all he needed to do was be halfway decent and he would have driven in 90-100 runs batting behind Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Instead, he slugged .411 and had his worst season to date, at least by OPS+.

Not only was Dickey terrific throughout, but he obviously mastered the art of pitching to the score last winter. In 2011, he had a fine 3.28 ERA, yet he finished 8-13 in 32 starts. ... Lohse is the biggest surprise of the group in my mind, even though he went 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA in 2011. I figured he'd regress, yet he actually kicked up another notch and blew away his previous career-best ERA for the second straight year. ... I had Saleas as the worst bet of the AL's big three relief-to-starter conversions this year. I ranked Neftali Feliz 57th, Daniel Bard 64th and Sale 68th among MLB SPs.

Halladay's struggles were injury related, but it didn't stop the future Hall of Famer from throwing 156 mediocre innings. That gets him a spot high on the list. Still, Lincecum was the bigger disappointment, turning in the worst season of any NL starter. The 190 strikeouts don't make up for that ERA or WHIP. ... Romero gave up 43 more earned runs while pitching 44 fewer innings than in 2011. ... Lester gets the obligatory Red Sox spot over Josh Beckett because I expected considerably more from him. I had him ranked 19th among SPs, compared to 35th for Beckett.

Several early-season closer switches and injuries made for plentiful choices here. Still, Rodney easily claims the top spot after racking up 48 saves and posting the lowest ERA in major league history (min. 50 IP). And it probably would have taken 10-man reserve rosters to get him drafted in AL-only leagues this year. ... Looking back, I really should have projected Chapman for more strikeouts. I put him at 12.1 K 9/IP, down a bit from his 12.8 in 50 innings in 2011. He ended up at 15.3.

Obviously, Bell was a bust. Axford still got his saves and strikeouts, but he was a liability in ERA and WHIP in the process. Walden lost his gig after just one blown save and never seemed to redeem himself in Mike Scioscia's mind, though he was effective aside from the month he missed in the second half. League was yanked from the closer's role in Seattle and traded prior to the deadline. He excelled after getting another chance with the Dodgers due to Kenley Jansen's heart troubles.

As always, the first end-of-season column focuses on the fantasy MVPs and LVPs. Awards are given to players that most over- or underperformed my preseason projections. I tend to give injured players a break when it comes to LVPs.

After acquiring Ramon Hernandez to start behind the plate, the Rockies had to decide whether to keep the 23-year-old Rosario as a backup or let him play regularly in Triple-A. They chose the former, and while Rosario often appeared raw behind the plate, he proved to be a star with the bat, leading all catchers in homers after taking over for an injured Hernandez in May.

Santana waited until the All-Star break to get it going, but he did hit .281/.389/.498 with 13 homers and 46 RBI from that point on. One could argue Brian McCann was the bigger disappointment, but injuries played a role in his terrible last two months.

Playing with a damaged shoulder, LaRoche hit .172 with three homers in 151 at-bats in 2011, and there were plenty of doubts whether he'd be his old self after returning from surgery this season. As it turned out, he was better than ever, establishing a new personal best in homers and tying his high in RBI. He did have a higher OPS back in 2006, but he was often sitting against lefties back then. This year, he hit .268 with 11 homers in 168 at-bats versus southpaws.

Even with the 16 steals, this was an easy choice. Only bigger and better things seemed in store after Hosmer hit .293 with 19 homers in 128 games as a rookie in 2011. However, his swing got out of whack early this year and he spent way too much of the season hitting weak grounders. The Royals never did anything about it either, leaving him in the lineup all year long. I imagine Hosmer will bounce back next year, but he needs to start putting more balls into the air.

Hill, now a two-time MVP to go along with his one LVP, certainly isn't known for his consistency. He's finished with OPSs of .792, .685, .829, .665, .655 and .882 the last six years. He also suddenly become a basestealer in 2011, swiping 35 bases the last two years after totaling 23 in his first five seasons. His six triples this year were twice as many as he had ever had before.

Like Hosmer, Weeks was a very disappointing sophomore. Unlike Hosmer, he actually lost his job because of it, but not before proving pretty worthless for 4 1/2 months. Older brother Rickie was also in the running here, but by hitting .261 with 13 homers and 51 runs scored in the second half, he was merely relegated to dishonorable mention status. Jemile will have some work to do next spring if he hopes to win his job back.

There were no shortage of quality choices here, but Headley gets the nod, partly because I had him ranked a few spots behind Edwin Encarnacion in the preseason. Headley totaled four homers and 44 RBI in 381 at-bats in 2011, and while it seemed likely that'd he bounce back from that, there was no telling this was coming. Headley topped his previous high in homers by 19 and led the NL in RBI despite playing half of his games in Petco Park.

I wanted to put Michael Young here -- Reynolds had the better OPS of the two by 80 points -- but the fact that Young racked up 611 at-bats in the middle of the Texas order and hit for a decent average gave him the greater fantasy value of the two. I had them practically dead even in the preseason, with Young placing 11th and Reynolds 12th in my third base rankings (Headley was 13th).

Desmond's 20-20 campaign gets him the nod here in spite of the modest run and RBI numbers. Originally the Nationals' leadoff man, he ended up spending most of the year hitting sixth. It's the better spot for his skill set, but it didn't result in much run or RBI production, especially after accounting for the fact that he scored and drove himself in 25 times on his homers.

I was too high on Andrus in the first place, ranking him as the No. 3 shortstop over Starlin Castro and Jose Reyes. His .727 OPS wasn't bad at all, but his fantasy value was stymied by manager Ron Washington's call to have him bunt Ian Kinsler along so frequently and by the fact that he did less basestealing with Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre up in the order behind him.

Trout was obviously the overall fantasy MVP this year. He may well have provided more bang for the buck than anyone since Albert Pujols debuted for the Cardinals in 2001. ... I'm sure I was higher on Rios than most going into this year, but that probably wasn't the case with Jones, who took a big step forward in the power department and also established a new career high in steals. Not only did Jones go from 25 homers to 32 this season, but he had 39 doubles, topping his previous high by 13.

I forgive injuries here, but Ellsbury was pretty much a non-factor in the half-season he did play. While Ellsbury's MVP-quality 2011 may go down as a career year, he still performed a whole lot better than this in his two previous healthy seasons. ... I thought Upton would take another step forward at age 24. Instead, he needed a late surge just to finish with 17 homers. He had 11 through the end of August. I'm still a big believer going forward. ... As for Delmon, well, all he needed to do was be halfway decent and he would have driven in 90-100 runs batting behind Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Instead, he slugged .411 and had his worst season to date, at least by OPS+.

Not only was Dickey terrific throughout, but he obviously mastered the art of pitching to the score last winter. In 2011, he had a fine 3.28 ERA, yet he finished 8-13 in 32 starts. ... Lohse is the biggest surprise of the group in my mind, even though he went 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA in 2011. I figured he'd regress, yet he actually kicked up another notch and blew away his previous career-best ERA for the second straight year. ... I had Saleas as the worst bet of the AL's big three relief-to-starter conversions this year. I ranked Neftali Feliz 57th, Daniel Bard 64th and Sale 68th among MLB SPs.

Halladay's struggles were injury related, but it didn't stop the future Hall of Famer from throwing 156 mediocre innings. That gets him a spot high on the list. Still, Lincecum was the bigger disappointment, turning in the worst season of any NL starter. The 190 strikeouts don't make up for that ERA or WHIP. ... Romero gave up 43 more earned runs while pitching 44 fewer innings than in 2011. ... Lester gets the obligatory Red Sox spot over Josh Beckett because I expected considerably more from him. I had him ranked 19th among SPs, compared to 35th for Beckett.

Several early-season closer switches and injuries made for plentiful choices here. Still, Rodney easily claims the top spot after racking up 48 saves and posting the lowest ERA in major league history (min. 50 IP). And it probably would have taken 10-man reserve rosters to get him drafted in AL-only leagues this year. ... Looking back, I really should have projected Chapman for more strikeouts. I put him at 12.1 K 9/IP, down a bit from his 12.8 in 50 innings in 2011. He ended up at 15.3.

Obviously, Bell was a bust. Axford still got his saves and strikeouts, but he was a liability in ERA and WHIP in the process. Walden lost his gig after just one blown save and never seemed to redeem himself in Mike Scioscia's mind, though he was effective aside from the month he missed in the second half. League was yanked from the closer's role in Seattle and traded prior to the deadline. He excelled after getting another chance with the Dodgers due to Kenley Jansen's heart troubles.

I put down my thoughts on Trout vs. Cabrera over at HardballTalk. Cabrera is going to win the MVP, and I'm OK with that. I think Trout was pretty clearly the better player, but he did play in 22 fewer games after opening the season in the minors.

As for the rest, Cano's awesome finishing kick thrust him from somewhere in the 7-10 range up to No. 3. That spot appeared likely to come down to Beltre vs. Hamilton a couple of weeks ago, but Hamilton's disappearing act nearly knocked him off the ballot entirely.

Price had the ERA lead, the wins and the tougher schedule. Strictly on an inning-by-inning basis, I'd give him the edge over Verlander here. Still, I think the difference is pretty small and doesn't make up for the fact that Verlander made the equivalent of four more starts than Price did. Considering the infield defense behind him, the fact that Verlander finished second in the league in WHIP and batting average allowed is pretty amazing.

Molina is the game's best defensive catcher, and he started 22 more games behind the plate than Posey did this year. Yeah, he's the worst hitter of the top six here, but it's not by all that huge of a margin. He's 87 points of OPS shy of Posey, 113 points shy of Braun.

One seemingly minor factor that swayed me in the end; Molina somehow hit into just 10 double plays this year. He came in at 21, 27, 19 and 21 the previous four years. It's really a pretty amazing total given that he's pretty slow, he hits plenty of grounders and he rarely strikes out. If Molina had made those 10-12 extra outs he usually does on twin-killings, I probably would have gone Posey first.

I spent pretty much the entire year believing Dickey was the choice here. And he still would have been if Kershaw had succumbed to his hip injury. Kershaw came back and made a couple of more starts, though, and he proved to be the best pitcher. He led in ERA, strikeout ratio and WHIP while pitching just six fewer innings than Dickey. He also faced the tougher schedule. Consider that his opponents OPS was .760, even though quality left-handed hitters often sat out against him. Dickey's was .750, the lowest mark of the top five pure starters (including Gio Gonzalez, not including Medlen).

As for Medlen, his schedule was the weakest of the bunch. But he was amazing, amassing a 1.57 ERA in 138 innings. I think that's quite a bit more valuable than what Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman did. I also think it trumps Gio Gonzalez's performance. Gonzalez gave up 43 additional runs (40 earned) while pitching 61 1/3 innings more innings than Medlen. That's a 5.87 ERA. In comparison, Medlen allowed 19 more runs (17 earned) in 75 1/3 innings more than Kimbrel pitched. That's a 2.03 ERA.

Miley seemed to have this one in the bag for most of the year, but he went 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA in his final six starts. Harper, meanwhile, hit .330 with seven homers and 27 runs scored in 112 at-bats between September and October. It's still terribly close, and I've gone back and forth on my choice a few times. It's too bad they can't tie.

As for Rosario, he was just too sloppy defensively to justify a higher spot. He did lead all major league catchers and rookies in homers, but I think Aoki and Frazier were more valuable this year.